Helen Thomas Turns Up in Playboy

The 90-year-old former grande dame of the White House Press Corps is interviewed in Playboy‘s April issue (hits newstands tomorrow). The magazine dispatched a release on it this afternoon to promote her first in-depth interview since she was was forced to quit last May. In the er, spread, she discusses what she meant by saying that Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine” and that Jews “can go home [to] Poland, Germany and America.” She also opens up about her feelings towards Jews and her thoughts on their influence and power; her supposed retirement; President Obama and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton; and what she calls Congress’s anti-Arab agenda.

“It’s an interview not a pictorial!” exclaimed Playboy Publicist Abigail O’Donnell when we asked if Thomas would be clothed. (We’re sorry Abigail. We didn’t mean to give you a heart attack.)

Turns out Helen is not sorry at all for what she said: “I knew exactly what I was doing – I was going for broke. I had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up…I finally wanted to speak the truth,” she said candidly.

See an excerpt of the interview…

On the aftermath of her May 27 remarks about Israel: “I went into self-imposed house arrest for two weeks…Every columnist and commentator jumped on me immediately as anti-Semitic. Nobody asked me to explain myself. Nobody said, ‘What did you really mean?’”

On memorializing the Holocaust: “There’s nothing wrong with remembering it, but why do we have to constantly remember? We’re not at fault. I mean, if they’re going to put a Holocaust museum in every city in Germany, that’s fine with me. But we didn’t do this to the Jews. Why do we have to keep paying the price and why do they keep oppressing the Palestinians? Do the Jews ever look at themselves? Why are they always right? Because they have been oppressed throughout history, I know. And they have this persecution. That’s true, but they shouldn’t use that to dominate.”

On the Jews’ influence and power: “[The Jews are] using their power, and they have power in every direction…Power over the White House, power over Congress…Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood. Same thing with the financial markets. There’s total control…It isn’t the two percent. It’s real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power. [To the interviewer] You don’t deny that. You’re Jewish, aren’t you?”